It isn't quite a holographic Tupac, but the Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Film Festival have found a way for former Brewer - now St. Louis Cardinal - pitcher John Axford to appear at this year's festival.

Axford was a sponsor of this year's festival to the tune of $25,000. His donation went toward support of the Cream City Cinema program for local films and filmmakers and allowed the filmmaker in residence cash prize to double to $5,000.

Axford was going to introduce the film he selected - Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" - Oct. 5 as part of the festival's midnight Cinema Hooligante program.

He had planned to read from a paper he wrote in high school about the film.

There was a chance Axford could appear if the Cardinals did not make it into the postseason but no such luck.

So with help from the Brewers broadcast crew, the festival taped Axford's intro when the Cardinals played Miller Park in mid-September, to play at the screening. Unfortunately, he accidentally lost the high school paper he wrote, during the move to St. Louis.

Above is a photo of the clean-cut Axford with festival artistic and executive director Jonathan Jackson.

Last year, Axford presented "The Princess Bride" at the film festival.

Axford has a bachelor's degree from Notre Dame in film and TV. While in school, he made a short black-and-white film that "was a little dark," he told me last year. I don't think he was talking about the use of light and shadow.

He has written an unproduced screenplay about a kids baseball team and said that he wanted to go into filmmaking after his playing days are over. He said he's a fan of "open-ended" films "with a lot of substance" that are "fairly intense and . . . let me think a little bit" afterward.

About Duane Dudek

Duane Dudek is a reporter and columnist covering radio and television. He also reviews movies.